Posted
by
Soulskill
on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @03:35PM
from the new-york-must-have-a-lot-of-these dept.

DavidGilbert99 writes "With a £400 transmitter, a laptop and a little knowledge you could bring down an entire city's high-speed 4G network. This information comes from research carried out in the U.S. into the possibility of using LTE networks as the basis for a next-generation emergency response communications system. Jeff Reed, director of the wireless research group at Virginia Tech, along with research assistant Marc Lichtman, described the vulnerabilities to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which advises the White House on telecom and information policy. 'If LTE technology is to be used for the air interface of the public safety network, then we should consider the types of jamming attacks that could occur five or ten years from now (PDF). It is very possible for radio jamming to accompany a terrorist attack, for the purpose of preventing communications and increasing destruction,' Reed said."

Hope in a taxi or bus, drive around, turn off transmitter, walk some way, hope on another bus, turn it on again, turn it off again. Basically keep moving, make the movement sufficiently random, any you won't get caught. OK, a car battery is a bit heavy, but it's not that heavy that you can't carry it around on your lap.

Regarding the "oh noz terrorists", not everything has to be linked to terrorists, isn't it more likely that in the event of a "terrorist" attack, the system would be brought down by people just trying to call the emergency number or friends and family? And anyway, haven't I read about various authorities around the world wanting a switch to turn off the phone networks in the event of a terrorist attack?

So when the "terrorists" do it, it's bad, but when the authorities do it, it's just fine...

If you are a terrorist, it would not matter. Even if they were all 100 found within 1 hour and deactivated, the real result would be delivered by the media. Can you imagine the headlines if such a thing would happen?

13 guys with box cutters saw to it that we can not take a nail-clipper onto a plane. The result of their action is that laws have been created that limit everybodyâ(TM)s rights all over the world.

The fear the media would create is so much more then what the terrerists could do themselves. Fear nothing but fear itself and that is what will be crated: fear.